The King Must Die
by the Star-Seal
Summary: The stars are going out. There are intergalactic cries. Highschool phantoms are sucked into their computers. When Danny Fenton is spewed into Zim's base, closely pursued by heartless, where are the cancelled Nicktoons to turn?
1. The Heartless Invaders

StarSeal: Ooh… this is my first multiple-genre fic. I don't know very much about what I'm writing. I had a migraine so I was watching the Lion King, and I saw this picture on the net of Simba battling Heartless Shadows. Then I thought, what would it be like if the Shadows came to Zim? Then I realized that Kingdom Hearts is a Disney game, so I needed someone to bring the Heartless to Nickelodeon. I chose Danny Phantom, because he meddles in other world stuff. Besides, I'm sick of everyone blaming everything on Zim or Gir- they can't have a fault with EVERYTHING. So yeah, I know very little about anything not-Zim, since I don't have cable. I had to look up names even. So, if you want me to make anyone more in-character, just tell me. And I know, the Pride Lands were destroyed long ago, but you just gotta love that place. And hyenas. You gotta love hyenas. Oh, and I know it's hard, but try to picture everyone in Vasquez-style, because that's a flaw in most fanfics- style clashes. All the lions are big, white-eyed and silly, and the heartless are blank as malfunctioning SIRs, and stuff. M'yep. And just for heck, I'll add that there are Universes im this, they are channels. So, they wouldn't see stars going out until the Heartless found Nickelodeon's Universe.

Fire scorched the sky, casting odd shadows across the dusky pride lands. But these aren't the regal, Disney Pride Lands. These are the Pride Lands of… Jhonen Vasquez!

Sorry, just had to say that so you know there are no clashing styles here. Heh heh… yeah.

Anyway, in the near-dusk light, a great, tawny lion galloped through the grass. It was headed towards the roars that came from over the hills, in the shadow of the Rock. As it ran, it was suddenly knocked off course by a glossy black hyena. The hyena's chest blazed with a red, stitched-hearted symbol. The lion roared in anger and leaped upon the black hyena. He bit deep into its neck, and it vanished. Strange round things splashed from where it had been. The lion shook itself, disturbed, and continued towards the cries. It topped a hill and stared down.

His pride was surrounded by a mass of roiling black creatures. Some were hyenas like the one he'd defeated, some were circling black vultures. But most were strong, round-bodied black beasts. They all shared the same haunted, pale eyes. As the golden lionesses and black creatures met in a furious fray, the lion roared and bounded towards them. But a multitude of the round-bodied things rose up from the grass. They leaped upon him, nearly covering him. He slashed and bit, but every one he destroyed was replaced. They sky was darkening. Shadow after Shadow covered the African creatures, and suddenly there was nothing left but an echoing, desperate cry.

SIX EARTH MONTHS LATER…

Dib was, once again, star gazing. He had been star gazing a lot. Membrane's telescope was very enlightening.

"Gaz! Come see this!" he shouted suddenly. One star, bright and close to Earth, was blinking. As he watched, it faded and went out. He pulled off his headphones and jumped off the roof.

"Dad! A star just went out! It was a perfectly normal star, not a giant or anything, and it-"

"Now now, son, you know that stellar activity from beyond this galaxy is pointless to acknowledge."

"But- oh, never mind."

Zim stared angrily at the screen. "Computer! I've been ordering you for the last twenty minutes to analyze this substance! Why are you so mean to Zim?"

"Substance is ectoplasm!"

"LIES! No analyze it!"

"Um, Zim, seriously, it's ectoplasm and-" The house computer sparked suddenly and dimmed. Zim blinked.

"What now? You try my patience, house computer!"

"Viral substance detected."

"Viral? Oh, no! GIR!"

Gir was expelled through a portal in the wall. He slid sideways on his feet, screaming, and crashed into the wall besides Zim. He went red.

"yes, sir!"

"Well, Gir's not the virus, and that's always good… but then, what could be in my computer, eh? What's this?"

The screen had lit up with a greenish light and, suddenly, something was thrown out of it. Zim cried out in surprise as the thing collided with him, throwing him back. His spider-legs came out and he pushed away, jumping to his feet. A white jump-suited person was kneeling, panting on the floor.

"What's going on?" Zim demanded. "Who- what are you?"

The person looked up, startled, and suddenly a hoop of light engulfed him, and he was like a normal Earth kid. "Uh, I'm human," he said.

"Really? Me too." Zim smiled dumbly, placing a hand over his heart. "Eh, I mean, um… Who are you? What are you doing in my… normal earth house?"

The boy stood up. "I'm Danny. I have no idea why I'm here, but it must have something to do with those monsters-"

"Master! It's spooky!" Gir's comment split the conversation. The two spun around to stare at the screen. It was engulfed in shadowy black stuff and slowly opening.

"What's going on?" cried Zim. "What is that stuff?"

"It's the monsters!" Moaned Danny. "They were destroying my world when everything vanished!"

"And you brought it here? HERE? My base? Oh, you humans make me sick…" Zim cried out as a claws hand thrust up from the screen. "Gir! Let's go!" He grabbed Gir's blue shoulder and Gir rocketed up. They bounded out of the oven and stood gasping in the living room. To Zim's shock, Danny materialized up through the floor and stood on it.

Dib ran through the streets, carrying a lunchbox and a laser gun. He jumped over a fence and crouched in the bushes. There was Zim's house, across the street. It was time for super notes. He pulled his x-ray binoculars over his glasses and squinted. There was Zim, standing with his crazy robot dog in the living room, yelling. He certainly yelled a lot. Zim pulled off the glasses and looked around. There were a few neighbors standing out in their yards. He decided that if he could dodge through the gnome field and into the windows the robot dog always left unlocked, he could grab Zim and drag him into the middle of the street, where anyone could see him. Dib slipped the binoculars in his pocket and crept forward.

Standing at the opening in Zim's fence, Dib didn't think he'd been seen. The gnomes stood around, stupid as ever. Dib tensed, running over what he would do. He would sprint passed the gnomes, push open the window and tumble through, into Zim's house. He ran. Dib ran straight passed the gnomes before they could react, jumped up the window, thrust upwards, and hit his big head on the glass. It was locked. Fortunately, the glass was very worn out and shattered. Dib landed gracelessly in a pile of broken glass just inside the window. He jumped up and struggled to turn on his laser gun.

Zim spun around, clutching Gir to his chest like a shield. Dib realized that they weren't alone- there was someone floating behind Zim. Seeing Dib, the kid suddenly let his feet touch the ground.

"Zim! What's going on? Who's he? Is he another abductee? What have you been doing?"

"He is a normal human worm baby," snapped Zim. "And he's an intruder. Like you! Computer! Um… Gir! Capture the human!"

Gir jumped up, red-eyed. He looked to Dib, then to Danny, and back, and back, his eyes melted to blue, back and forth and back and… squee… Boom! Head explodey.

"Okay, let's just talk this out, okay?" Danny was a little weirded out by the strange world he was in.

"Eh, okay…" Zim looked like the possibility had never occurred to him. "Well, first of all, why are there two humans in my base, why is there a black puddle eating my house computer, and how does Gir grow his head back?"

"Um, I have no idea about the head thingy, and I don't know how I got here," Said Danny. "Hmm… all I remember is that there was a lot of evil activity in the Ghost Zone, and all these black and red ghosts were aparating. Then more and more black things came and… and I was in a computer for some reason."

"Wait," said Dib, frowning. "So your world was attacked by black monsters, right?"

"Yess…"

"Zim- didn't you just say there was a pool of black stuff in your labs?"

"Yes."

"But that must mean- you brought monsters into our world!"

"I didn't mean too! I didn't even remember coming into this world!"

"Master! The spooky things are here!" Gir stood staring at the kitchen, where a blackantenna was snaking up through the trashcan.

StarSeal: Okay, that's the opening. Dedicated to Lauren and Will, who sparked my interest in Kingdom Hearts, and to Zim999, who reminded me I'd said I'd write this... I wrote this months ago and completely forgot, but now I have it I like it so I'll try to make it good. I hope I use characters y'all like.


	2. Guru of Game Wisdom

StarSeal: Just to clarify, for my purposes, let's say that media is the dimensions- books, shows, movies, video games, radio shows- each has its own dimension, and each dimension is full of universes, which are full of galaxies. SO, cartoons are a dimension, Nickelodeon is a bunch of universes, and Invader Zim is a universe, so is Danny Phantom and all that other stuff.

The three boys ran screaming out the door, passed the gnomes, and into the street, where they hid behind the fire extinguisher, panting.

"What the heck is going on?" said Dib, wishing he'd not dropped his laser at the sight of the pale eyed thingies. What a moron.

"Monsters," said the new kid. "I don't know why or how, but they've been destroying my world."

"Do you know where they come from?" Asked Dib, taking notes.

"No, they just started appearing. About two weeks ago."

"How did you get here?"

"Well, I was monitoring the Ghost Zone- not that I'm a ghost or anything- and there was this black warp thingy… and all these monsters were coming out, and they were coming through the world through computers- this big computer shut down and became a portal, just like that green thing's did, and the monsters were everywhere… I flew my RV at the portal to try and destroy it, but I got sucked in and ended up in that guy's basement… where'd he go, anyway?"

"Huh? Zim! Where are you?"

They looked around, but the street was empty.

"Oh, well. We'd better get away from here," said Danny. "I'm Danny, by the way. Who are you?"

"Dib. I'm a paranormal investigator."

"You don't say," said Danny in a weird voice.

"Okay, team, we need to build a device powerful enough to contact the Tallest and tell them what's happening," said Zim.

"Fun!" Squealed Gir. "We not done nothing ina long time!"

"You know what," said Zim, reality dawning on him, "you're right! We haven't pulled anything since Christmas! It's almost like… like… I dunno."

"It's like we're a cartoon that's been cancelled!" Screamed Gir, banging a pig against his head. The pig cried silently.

"Squeak!"

"Why, you are right, Minimoose! The universe does seem very dull lately! How weird."

Zim scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Well, we lost all technology when those disGUSTING creatures captured the base, so we'll have to… grr… I hate this!"

"Whoo! We're gonna work with the Dib!"

"No! Never again!" Shouted Zim. "No… we shall… hmmm. We need a power source capable of transmitting across the galaxies, but we can't let the humans find out we've stolen one. I know! Gir!"

"Sir!"

"Take us to the Perpetual Energy Generator!"

"So if these creatures are going from world to world, where did they first come from? And what did they want?" Dib pulled at his spike.

"I know where we can probably find out," said Danny. "Does your world have Internet?"

"Of course."

Gaz walked with her GS2 into the living room. She was shocked to see that, not only was Mysterious Mysteries off, there was a kid on the couch- in her spot- next to Dib. They were bent over a computer.

"Hey. School project?" She asked, not really interested.

"No, Gaz, this concerns our entire galaxy!" Declared Dib. "And this is Danny."

"Hi," Said Danny. "Nice outfit. Gothic?"

"Sure."

Gaz paused her game. "So what's so important?" She slid onto the couch and peered at the screen.

"Well, Danny here came flying out of Zim's computer, which became a great, big portal, and all these freaky things are coming out of it. And the stars are going out."

"What did they look like?"

Dib looked at Danny.

"Well, the first ones were these buggy things with pale eyes, twitchy antenna, and round heads and bodies… they were cold and clawed. And then there were a lot that looked like ghosts- like ectopusses and vultures- um, phantom animals," he said, seeing Dib's blank look.

Gaz stared at him, eyes open.

"I've gotta go," she said.

And at that moment half of Dib's house exploded.

Dib and Danny screamed as the power went out and ire flared up around them. They could see a hole in the floor with the lab fairly intact. As the smoke cleared, three figures scrambled out and into the yard, carrying tech.

"Ha, pitiful humans!" shouted an only-too-familiar voice. "Your technology is now mine!"

The perimeter fence went on, illuminating Zim, Gir, and Minimoose in stupid black Mardi Gras masks. Zim threw down a snapper and ran off, cackling.

"What exactly is his deal, anyway?" Asked Danny.

"You don't want to know."

"There! Success!" Zim waved his hands in triumph as the screen lit up. He glared at his slaves. "Cheer me, damn you!"

Gir and Minimoose began screaming in approval.

"And now, watch as I amazingly contact my leaders!"

He turned to plug in the last plug when he and his team were thrown aside by the body weight of two human boys.

"We got you, Zim!" shouted Dib. "You think you're so smart, but we got you!"

"Gir!" shouted Zim, pushing himself up under Dib's smelly weight. "Assist your master!"

Gir, who'd been lying dumbly under Danny, suddenly screamed, turned red, and blasted his captor into the wall.

"Ow!" cried Danny. "What is this thing, anyway?"

"He is the most advanced model of information retrieval unit the Vortian captives have to offer!" yelled Zim, freeing himself from Dib.

"An 'AIR' unit?" Said Dib, standing.

"Grr, never you mind! What do you filthy freak want?"

"Um, you're the one who blew up my house and stole dad's stuff."

"I had a good reason!"

"And that is?"

"My base is destroyed and I need to call someone."

"Why didn't you just ask?"

"Because I'm an arrogant moron!"

"Will you call off your AIR already?" said Danny, dodging some head missiles.

"Gir, cease doom," said Zim.

Minimoose squeaked.

"Oh, no he's not going to hurry up and call the Tallest!" said Zim. "Whatever you and those monsters are planning, Zim, it's not going to work!"

"Me AND the monsters? Do you think I WANT them to destroy the Earth?"

"Well, that's what you're always doing!"

"I'm an invader, Dib. My mission is to conquer planets, not annihilate them. Don't you monitor my transmissions?"

"No, I couldn't find the password."

"Look, could we just put this aside, stop screaming, and work this out? Those things'll have swallowed your city by the time you shut up!"

"Okay, fine, but Zim has to tell us why he's calling his leaders!"

"Fine!" Spat Zim. "I was going to alert them to the danger, since only the Armada looks capable of defeating them, okay?"

"You're trying to save us?"

"This is why I didn't just ask you to lend me the tech!" screeched Zim, pulling his antenna.

He pushed the plug in.

"Incoming transmission from Earth." Said Generic Red-Eyed Pilot #12.

"Oh, what fun," grumbled Purple. "Put him on."

"Greetings, my Tallest!" cried their least-favorite organism.

Red squinted. "Who're the ugly people behind you?"

Zim looked back at Dib and Danny.

"They are my… hypnotized ugly people."

"Why are you calling?" sighed Purple.

"Well, my Tallest, I was working in my lab when all at once my computer became the co ordinance for a horrible inter-dimensional worm-hole and the universe is now open to legions of FILTHY black monsters!"

"Okaaayyyy…"

"And I am requesting Armada assistance to rally immediately and destroy them!"

"It's really important," added Dib. "Your world is in danger!"

Purple picked a spot on his chin. "Well, that's fascinating Zim, but we're reeeaaallllyyy busy at the moment. So, good luck! Call us and tell us how it all turns out! Or- better yet- DON'T call us."

The transmission went dead.

"So… what just happened?" asked Danny, who was of course not familiar with Irkens.

"The Tallest just screwed the Universe cause they hate Zim like no tomorrow!" shouted Gir, grabbing Minimoose and jamming his horn into his eye, causing the cyan lens to shatter.

Zim, who is not capable of hearing criticism, chewed his lip.

"The Tallest are obviously under attack from an even greater enemy," he said. "So that means that the fate of the world is up to us. Let's begin!" He jumped on Gir, tucked Minimoose under his arm, and the three blasted a hole in the wall and were gone.

"Shouldn't we follow him?"

"No, he means 'us' as in him and his robots."

"That… floaty thing was a robot?"

"Yes." Dib nudged a wire with his foot. "Well, it seems we have access to the greatest computer on Earth. Back to the Internet!"

They didn't find anything useful, but they did access quite a few rather disturbing sites that were undoubtedly the fruit of the Irken Internet, and made both humans very nauseous.

"No wonder they don't naturally breed anymore," mumbled Dib.

"Dib!"

Danny looked around at the sound. Dib looked at his watch.

"Wow, cool!" Said Danny, staring at the little screen. "Wish I had some of those with Sam and Tucker."

"Dib, meet me at the mall in one hour in front of Babbage's."

"Okaaayyy… is this important?"

"Yes." She hung up.

Dib shrugged. "Well, we're getting no where here, although I know more about some things than I'd prefer now, so why don't we head over there now? We could kill time in the magic store or something."

The magic store was dark and dusty and had blue velvet over the walls. There was a lot of cheap relics and crap.

"Ooh, look- freezing talismans," said Dib. "I was going to try one on Zim, but never got around to it." He scratched his neck. "Actually, I haven't done a lot lately."

Danny was looking at all the spirit-summoning stuff.

"That'd never work," he scoffed.

"Psst!"

Danny looked up. There was a big sarcophagus in the corner. He thought he saw light shining off something inside it.

"Is someone in there?" Danny asked quietly, peering through the crack in the door.

"Open the doors," someone said. "Quickly, please! There's no room in here!"

"Oh, no way," said Danny. "There is no way I'm getting cursed just now."

"Stupid little human, we ah not going to curse you!" said an accented voice. "Unless you don't open the door. Do it now!"

Danny sighed. "Okay…"

He glanced around before lifting the hasp. The doors flew open and a Danny was buried as a Chihuahua, a Schnauzer, and a beaver (all Jhonen style, remember) fell out. They must have been very cramped in there.

"Ha! At last we ah free of that awful coffin!" Yelled the Schnauzer, in his thick German accent.

"Eediot, where are we now?" said the Chihuahua. "Deed you even know where you were taking us?"

"Relax you guys, we'll figure something out, okay?"

Danny stared at the animals. The Beaver and the Chihuahua were on their hind legs, and the schnauzer- huge and white- was wearing a green vest.

"Okaaaayyy… who are you?" he asked.

They looked up. The schnauzer came forward. "Thank you, shrimpy human, for your assistance," he said. "Now please tell us where we ah and when."

Danny really wanted to say, 'you're here and now,' but he didn't. there was something vaguely familiar about the schnauzer, and besides, he had a hunch where they had all come from.

"You're in the universe of… um… humans and Irkens," he said. "And this is… well, it's in the future from my world so… I'd say the late twentieth century."

"Irkens?" said the schnauzer. "There are no Irkens in my world. We ah in a different universe, then! That is against Da Rules!" He began angrily trying to bite his tail.

"Again?" moaned the beaver. "I've already done that! Well, maybe this will be the last time."

The Chihuahua just looked ticked.

"Whoa- what's going on here?" Dib had just spotted the new arrivals.

Danny poked the schnauzer so it would listen. "Hey- was your world by any chance invaded by monsters?"

"Yes, thousands of black monsters immune to fairy magic!" He looked furious at the very idea. "Also against Da Rules!"

"Aha!" Danny looked at Dib. "Do you know what this means? It means that we aren't the only universes in danger! It means that there are monster portals all over the dimension!"

"Eet means we are fairly screwed," said the Chihuahua in his wheezy accent.

"So the monsters are here too?" asked the beaver. "Oh, that jerk…"

"Look, we're trying to stop it," said Dib. "Who are you guys, anyway?"

"I am Norbert," said the golden Beaver. "I dove into a whirlpool when the monsters attacked and ended up in some weird half-world. An empty world."

"I am Ren," said the Chihuahua. "When the portal opened een my world, I covered myself een falp, and when the portal covered me I also ended up een the empty world.

"And I am Jorgen," said the schnauzer. "The monsters appeared in my world and as the fairies fled they unwittingly brought the monsters to other dimensions. Knowing the danger, I carefully chose a world without life that could be hurt, but there were these strange things there, and we decided to try a dimension with life in it, but in the process my manly wand was destroyed and I once again became a schnauzer!" He ruffed indignantly.

"Well, I'm Dib, and this is Danny. He escaped his world through the Internet. We were just-"

"Dib! Where the heck are you?"

"Crap! We'll be right there!"

Dib covered his watch. "Come with us, we have to meet my sister. Don't worry, we'll straighten all this out."

As the hurried out of the magic store, they passed a man in a black trench coat with black glasses. He was muttering something about Count CocoaFang. The paranormal investigator's head shot up at the sight of Jorgen.

"Fairy!" He shouted.

"About time," said Gaz coldly. "Who are these freaks?"

"More castaways," said Danny.

"Whatever. Look, I wanted to show you this." She turned to the kid standing nervously next to her. "Give it."

"Be careful," warned the boy. "This is the rarest game on the planet, and if you damage it-"

"I'll damage more than it, Iggins, if you don't give it to me."

He ground his teeth and held out a very old, tattered video game box and an equally shabby walkthrough.

"A video game?" asked Dib impatiently.

"This is important, Dib," said Gaz coldly. "Look."

Danny took the video game. "Kingdom Hearts?"

"Have you heard of it?"

"No."

"Well, I didn't think so. It's not supposed to be here."

"What do you mean?"

"It's not from our dimension."

The five pressed close to peer at it.

"It was a game created from characters from a dimension close to ours," said Gaz. "Some how it got here, and this freak bought it on eBay. But anyway, the important thing is the plot."

"And that is…?"

"There is this happy little island in the middle of the ocean," said Gaz. "Everything's fine and then little black monsters start to appear."

Dib stared at her. "But-"

She kicked Iggins. "Tell them the rest."

Iggins scowled at her. "Well, the monsters are called Heartless, and they feed on the hearts of the living. They go from world to world, and when they get what they want, the world is destroyed, marked by a star going out. To defeat the Heatless, the characters had to go from world to world, sealing the 'keyholes', or portals. Then you had to defeat the people who'd commanded the Heartless."

He opened the book to a picture of the monsters.

"The Heartless usually take the form of the creature of this world. So that would be…"

"Aliens," said Dib at once. "Irkens, probably. What did your look like?"

"Ectopusses and vultures," said Danny.

"Anti-fairies and pixies," said Jorgen.

"Baboons," said Ren.

"Crocodiles and bears," said Norbert.

"But if they're just from a game-" began Dib.

"No, they're not. They spread to the dimension that created it, and took the worlds of some of the characters. They've been in their for some time, but I don't know how they got into our dimension." She looked at them as if one might explain it.

"Well, that's what I've got to tell you," said Gaz finally. She gave the game back to Iggins, along with thick wads of cash. "We'll be keeping the guide for the time being," she said firmly. The two game slaves parted.

"Okay, so we're further along than before," said Dib, "but we still need more answers. In the meantime, let's-"

"Now!"

They all looked around for the speaker, and lasers sprouted from the tiles- four of them. They aimed and fired at everyone but Dib, and all four disappeared on contact. Dib stood dumbly in the empty hallway.

"Why do I feel do unloved?"

StarSeal: Woot! That was quicker than I'd thought. Ah, Ol' Bill recognizing all the dumb supernatural. I like cameos, can you tell? I really don't know much about Ren and Stimpy or Angry Beavers- or even Danny Phantom- but I can guess. They're the only cancelled nicktoons I'm somewhat familiar with, anyway.

Sorry there's so much Dib and so little Zim, I'll fix that. I can't stand all-Dib little-Zim stuff, so I'm sorry. Anydangway, this story has a problem that Jhonen's Irksome Creations had- I couldn't really give the characters and ending, so the whole plot of Jhonen's Etc. was somewhat… pointless. I warn you that this MAY be similar. When you know exactly what the problem is, please send me suggestions to remedy this. Thanks, guys.


	3. When Stuff Happens

StarSeal: Woo! Guess who's still alive! Finally started working on this again. Um… let's see. First of all, I have something to say to the reviewers- quit it. Not all of you, but some of you seem to feed on plot flaws and corrupt details and get pleasure from spitting them in the author's face. I'm not against constructive criticism, but there are some comments that help and some that just annoy. For example, this is not a script, and the characters are doing things they would never actually do, so I HAVE to twist and bend certain character traits and stuff, okay? And also, adding characters can be very complex and mind blendering, so I'm sorry if you're in love with Sora but this plot just doesn't have him in it, okay? Anyway, thank you for reading this stuff, nitpickers and all.

The castaways found themselves floating in containment units inside a rather empty warehouse-like building. A huge generator was in one corner, and some transmission screens and computers were set up against one wall. They blinked in the different light.

Gir ran up to the line of chambers. "We got em! We got em! DOGGIES!"

Zim crawled over on his spider-legs. "Yess, Gir, we are amazing. The Dib never expected a thing! HAHAHA!"

Norbert blinked. "Daggot?"

"Eh?"

"Sorry, your voice is familiar."

Zim blinked. He shook his head. "Silence, hair beast, you are here to help me pinpoint the source of the shadow monsters, NOT to distract me with beavery commentary."

Zim turned around and typed something in the computer.

Gir ran back into view, in his dog costume. "Look! Me's a doggy too!"

"That's… great," said Ren uncomfortably.

Gir stared blankly for a minute, then glanced aside, seemed to consider, and pressed two buttons on a panel. The chambers with Jorgen and Ren emptied and opened. Not used to solid ground, they fell forward clumsily.

"Gir!" Zim shouted, turning around. "What have you done?"

"Doggies." As if that explained it. Zim rubbed his temples angrily.

"Can I get the beaver, too?" Asked Gir.

"No!"

"You really didn't have to kidnap us, you know," Said Danny.

"Of course I- how did you get out?"

Danny glanced around. "Um… staff exit?"

Zim scowled. "Gir, I told you not to add that!" He sighed angrily. "Well, since you're all pretty much out already…" His spider-leg poked the last button, releasing Norbert.

"What was it you wanted help with?" Danny asked.

"Yes, shrimpy alien, what ah you doing to stop da monstahs?"

"I'm going to pinpoint the exact location of all universal connections using DNA scans of you guys, lock onto the position, hop in the voot and fly away before the planet explodes! Brilliant, yes?"

"And the planet would explode because…?" Danny probed.

"I'm going to blow it up!" Zim beamed.

"You mean you're going to destroy everyone on Earth just to stop this stuff?" Norbert asked, looking disturbed.

"No, silly, we'll be far away!"

"'We' meaning you and your robots," said Danny coldly.

Zim nodded.

"You can't do that! What about us?" Norbert said angrily. "We're people too!"

"Can I bring the beaver? HE FUNNY!"

"Gir, go chase some cows or something. I'm working."

Gir squealed in joy, busting through a wall on his run out.

"Alright, let's try to solve this like intelligent life forms, alright?" Danny tried again. What do we know about all this?"

"We know that black monsters first appearing een another deemension's video game showed up een our uneeverses and destroyed them," Said Ren.

"And we know the advance of our lives has been deleted indefinitely," said Norbert.

"When did we learn that?" Jorgen growled.

"Oh, I just know," said the golden beaver. "The Schauer told me." He saw their blank looks and continued, enjoying the attention. "Have you ever heard of the Fourth Wall Concept? Well, it's a theory that I have seen proven, and it basically says that every one of us is under the influence of different-dimensional beings more powerful than ourselves."

Zim snorted. Norbert continued.

"This theory is laughable for most of your existence, but there comes a time when you notice that, in all honesty, you're not doing anything. Your action-packed lives cut off and you drift through a series of poorly engineered, dream-like adventures that seem to have been conceived by much dimmer people than the older, golden ones. Sometimes the true life starts up again for a while, but usually, once it's gone, it's gone."

"But why is this happening?" Jorgen snapped.

"Oh, well, remember those people I mentioned? They, in turn, report to more powerful people, and these people decide how many adventure they let us have. It all depends on the different-dimensional viewers, people who watch our every move, memorizing every catchphrase, exploiting every flaw! But ignore that, sooner or later the big guys decide we're through, severe our puppeteer's contact with us and we. Are. Done."

"So we get cancelled like a cartoon?" Cried Ren, aghast.

"Exactly."

"Oh, that' stupid!" Exploded Zim. "I am ZIM! I am NOT some puppet-master's dance-pig! You're all idiots! I'm going to destroy this planet and prove that ZIM never stops having adventures! NEVER! MINIMOOSE!"

"Meh!"

"Activate DNA scanners!"

"Meh."

Minimoose swiveled in the air to ace the castaways. His eyes opened and two cables came out of each, fastening themselves to the four alien's foreheads. They gasped as waves of energy pulsed into them, tracking.

"Success!" Shouted Zim, punching the air. "Target found!" He pushed a button. "Target locked! I always wanted to blow up that mean ol' house computer."

AI Brain taped to the side of the computer: "Hey!"

"Countdown initiated!" He punched more buttons. A projection of a countdown appeared. The castaways started yelling stuff that evil people never pay attention to.

Zim called Gir on his PAK. "Gir! We're leaving!"

Gir ran back in, looking heartbroken. "I found no meat," he whispered. Zim grabbed him by the antenna and started towards the voot.

"Come, Minimoose!"

Minimoose released the other peoples and floated forward. And it was at this ideal moment that the computers died.

"Eh? Minimoose! What happened?"

But it was obvious what happened because a Black, pale-eyed Vortian sprang through the screen (it was behind the computer, no in it, sillies) and tackled the moose.

Commence awesome JV screaming!

Heartless- Shadows, Vortians, Screwheads, SIRs, Shadow Hogs- poured into the building.

The real people scattered, running at windows and doors and rather new holes in the walls.

"Aliens!" Screeched Gir, clapping as Heartless advanced on him. "They's be all scary doom-like!"

Jorgen was backed into a corner, barking madly at the black robots blocking him. He ducked as Danny went flying overhead. He jumped up.

"Forget this!" He said angrily, and went ghost. Hovering invisibly overhead, he screamed as sharp teeth pierced his ankle.

"They can still hurt me!" He exclaimed, falling visibly to the ground.

"Of course, stupid!" Snarled the schnauzer. "'Heart' is just a flowery figure of speech! They obviously feed on the soul! Therefore, you are not safe ion any form!"

"Oh, well- wait, you're not surprised I'm a ghost?" He asked, blasting away a rat-person and a slaughtering rat-person. There's a difference. Really.

"I'm a fairy, stupid! My world was swallowed by video game monsters! That beaver over there is yellow!"

"Oh. Right."

Jorgen doggy-yelped as a Heartless planet-jacker jumped o his neck. He reared and swung his head around. The heavy alien clanged against the PEG, breathing apparatus scraping deeply into it.

BOOM!

The Perpetual Energy Generator blew up, sending more confusion and hurt than ever into both sides.

--

Zim cradled Gir as he dragged himself, panting, down the street. His PAK looked chewed on and his shirt was ripped. An antenna was crooked and stuck out the top of the wig. His disguise was on but it didn't hide his black eye.

"Heartless… so… powerful…" he was mumbling. "Need… labs…"

"Yeah, yeah, shut up already." Gir was missing an arm, his head was slightly deformed, the ball on his antenna was just a few fragments of colored glass and his chest panel had a huge crack in it. One foot looked split.

Zim continued down the street, looking for some sort of lab to break into. Pain seared suddenly up his spine. He bellowed, arching and dropping the robot.

"Got you! Thought you could steal the glory, eh, space-freak?"

Zim turned to face his nemesis. He looks ready to finally kill him, but a blast from behind sends Dib to his knees.

"Dib, this is seriously not the time for this! You idiots had all the time to bounce through cancellation hating each other, but not now! We need to work together to solve this, get it?"

Dib stared. The back of his trench coat was smoking. "Gir?"

"Ha! Hardly. I'm the House Computer in Gir's body. His mind shut off in the PEG's explosion and my current AI brain connected with his skull. Sort of a switch from that one time a while back. But more importantly, do you understand what's going on here?"

"Yeah, Gir's smart and it's reeeaaallly creepy."

"No! Dib, you moron, didn't you listen to anything Gaz said?"

"Oh, yeah, that. Wait- so the PEG actually exploded? Dad's gonna kill me!"

"And I'll enjoy it!" Shouted Zim. Faced with a familiar enemy, he was thinking clearly again. Rays from his PAK were skating over his body, mending the clothes.

"But it really exploded? Just because you threw a Heartless against it?"

"How did you know that?" Asked Gir coldly.

"Oh, I figured out the password into Zim's 24/7 ZIM cams. It's 'ZIM'."

"I know. Now, since we all live in this universe, what are we going to do to fix this?"

"Zim! Dib! …Robot thingy!"

Dib looked around. "Danny! You're alive!"

"Only half of me. Did anyone else get out?" He asked Zim. Zim shrugged.

"Minimoose didn't. WHY MINIMOOSE! They could have taken Gir or the house's computer, but no! They had to take Minimoose! MINIMOOSE!"

Gir: "Thanks, Zim."

"Alright, relax," Said Danny, waving his hands. "We have to work together to get through this, right? Right."

"But Zim's an evil, ungrateful monster! We can't trust him!" Dib insisted.

"You can't trust the Heartless to wait for someone better, either. Now, let's think. We're Over, apparently, but that doesn't explain the monsters. I think we should try to figure out how they got into our dimension, first off."

"Good idea. Let's check the library," suggested Dib.

"Why do that?" Asked Ren. "When we could just go to a bookstore- it's like a giant, overstocked library where everything is new!"

"Never thought of it that way but, alright!"

StarSeal: That was awkward. I hate not being able to script cartoon-based stories. Anyway, sorry it took so long and I hope to throw out more soon. Next chapter I'll be bringing in one of my favorite characters from one of my favorite shows. Thanks for reading!


	4. The Wood Between the World

The bookstore wasn't especially helpful. Perhaps if they'd been checking an inter-dimensional manga shop they might have found something on their quarry, but they weren't and didn't. after scrolling through the computer looking for hinting titles, they split up and each took a different wing.

"Ah, how wonderful is the stink of ink," murmured Zim, browsing through random graphic novels. He and Danny had both decided to search Sci-Fi and Fantasy.

"I agree."

"Eh?" Zim looked up. Someone in a long, blue cloak was leaning against the shelf, her face hidden by an open graphic novel with a pinkish Z? on it.

"Yess, yes it is." Zim glanced around uncertainly. He hadn't realized there was anyone with him.

"Master!" whined Gir-Computer suddenly, running up with a comic book. "This comic is making no sense!"

"You have to read the whole thing," replied the weird person. She lowered her book and revealed her hooded face, which was mostly hidden in darkness. "If artists explained everything in the first panel, there would be no point." She snapped the book shut. "So you're Zim?" She asked the alien. A wry grin twisted her thin mouth. "Good, I was expecting you. Where's Danny?"

"What?" Danny came around the corner.

"Excellent. You three follow me, I need to show you some things."

"Why should we follow you?" Demanded Zim. "Zim trusts no humans!"

The teenager shook her head. "We don't have time. If you want to find out about the heartless, you need to come now."

"But who are y-" Danny began.

"Just come on!"

Danny and Zim gasped and leaned back as a swirling black portal opened behind her. Gir squeed and smiled. The girl gestured with her hand and entered the darkness. Zim, Gir and Danny glanced at each other and followed.

Just then, Dib entered the aisle in time to see the black circle wink out. Dib's mouth opened in righteous shock.

"Why do I always get left behind?"

Zim and Danny walked, wide-eyed, out of the darkness and into the sun. The girl was already there, leaning against one of many beautiful trees. The grass was perfectly green and fresh, and there were blue pools all around the outside of the forest. Danny suddenly had the strange feeling that he'd always been there, and he felt a sort of stupefying peace come over him. He plopped down on the grass as Gir-Computer left the portal, unimpressed by the organic beauty. He IS a robot, ya know. Vaguely Danny was aware that a chubby guinea pig was wheeting nearby. The girl was staring patiently at one of the pools, as if waiting for something.

"What are you doing?" Zim asked Danny coldly.

"Oh, nothing… I've just always been here. I think…?"

"Nooooo, we just got here through a portal. You just got here."

Danny blinked. His eyes drifted to the girl, and focused. He jumped up. "Oh, yeah!" he looked around him. "What… just happened?"

The girl glanced back. "It's this place. Entering it for the first time does strange things to people. Of course, robots and inorganics would be immune, and I've been here many times before." She pulled her hood down. "Now I'm going to tell you stuff."

She turned away from the tree. "Alright, first of all, my name is Raven. I can move things with my mind and am from a separate universe than you two. People cannot linger in other universes for too long without going insane, so I brought you here. This place is called 'the Wood Between the Worlds.' Every pool you see leads to a different galaxy, so naturally there wouldn't be any problem with aliens from all universes coming here. We're going to be talking for a while, so it's important none of us go insane before we're done."

"Assuming, of course, that some of us aren't already insame," remarked Gir-Computer.


End file.
